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Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Terror attack kills 12 at Paris weekly

Heavily armed men shouting
"Allahu akbar" stormed the Paris headquarters of a satirical weekly
yesterday, killing 12 people in an attack that brought more than 100,000
protesters onto streets across France.

The assault on the Charlie Hebdo
headquarters, the worst attack in France in decades, sparked a massive manhunt
as the two gunmen in black commando gear escaped, executing a wounded police
officer with a shot to the head.

The men remained on the run late
yesterday, with few clues on their whereabouts and parts of the French capital
in lockdown.

The attack sparked global outrage
and demonstrations of solidarity in several cities across Europe.

Many protesters in France carried
banners reading: "I am Charlie" and the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie was
trending worldwide including in Arabic.

French President Francois Hollande
called the attack "an act of exceptional barbarity" and
"undoubtedly a terrorist attack." He called for a day of national
mourning today and said flags would fly at half-mast.

Charlie Hebdo gained notoriety in
February 2006 when it reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) that
had originally appeared in Danish daily Jyllands-Posten, causing fury across
the Muslim world.

The killers screamed "we have
avenged the prophet, we have killed Charlie Hebdo" according to
prosecutors.

Editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo
Stephane Charbonnier, known as Charb and who had lived under police protection
after receiving death threats, was among the victims.

Others included Jean Cabut, known
across France as Cabu; Georges Wolinski; and Bernard Verlhac, better known as
Tignous. Also shot dead was popular economist Bernard Maris, 68, not a
cartoonist but well-known for his Charlie Hebdo editorials and national radio
commentaries.

The drama began in broad daylight in
a quiet Paris street when the masked gunmen stormed into the weekly's offices
as the journalists were in an editorial meeting, first shooting a receptionist.

They picked off eight journalists,
including some of France's best-known cartoonists, a security guard and a
visitor. One person survived by hiding under a table.

Chilling amateur video footage shot
after the carnage then showed them outside, running toward a wounded policeman
as he lay on the pavement.

Large numbers of police and
ambulances rushed to the scene and shocked residents spilled into the streets.
Reporters saw bullet-riddled windows and people being carried out on
stretchers.

Prosecutors said 11 people were also
injured in the attack, with four in critical condition.

One man who witnessed the attack
described a scene like "in a movie."

"I saw them leaving and
shooting. They were wearing masks. These guys were serious," said the man
who declined to give his name. "At first I thought it was special forces
chasing drug traffickers or something."

Authorities said their cold and
calculating manner suggested they had been well-trained.

French authorities placed the Paris
region on its highest alert level and beefed up security with soldiers deployed
at major transport hubs.

The attack took place at a time of
heightened fears in France and other European capitals over fallout from the
wars in Iraq and Syria, where hundreds of European citizens have gone to fight
alongside the radical Islamic State group.

Some shoppers flocking to the first
day of the winter sales voiced the fears of a nation: "Have we got them
yet or are they still at large? Do you think they could come here?"

Jitters were also felt in other
capitals, with a media group's office in Madrid evacuated later in the day
after a suspicious package was sent there.

US President Barack Obama led the
global condemnation of what he called the "cowardly, evil" assault.

British Prime Minister David Cameron
called it "sickening", German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the
attack was "despicable" and Russian President Vladimir Putin as well
as the Arab League condemned the violence.

Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam's
holiest sites, condemned "this cowardly terrorist attack which is
incompatible with Islam".

The imam of Drancy mosque in the
northern suburbs of Paris, Hassen Chalghoumi, visited the scene, calling the
shooters "barbarians, they lost their soul, sold their soul to hell".

The attacks revived fears of a
return to the dark days of the 1980s and 1990s when France, which is home to
Europe's largest Muslim population, was hit by a wave of extremist violence.

In 1995, a bomb in a commuter train
blamed on Algerian extremists exploded at the Saint Michel metro station in
Paris, killing eight and wounding 119.

Al-Qaeda inspired gunman Mohamed
Merah killed seven people in and around the southern city of Toulouse in 2012.
His victims included three French soldiers and four Jews -- three children and
a rabbi.

Charlie Hebdo's offices were
fire-bombed in November 2011 when it published a cartoon of Mohammad (PBUH)
under the title "Sharia Hebdo".

Despite being taken to court under
anti-racism laws, the weekly continued to publish controversial cartoons of the
Muslim prophet.

In September 2012, Charlie Hebdo
published cartoons of a naked Mohammad (PBUH) as violent protests were taking
place in several countries over a low-budget film, titled "Innocence of
Muslims", which was made in the United States and insulted the prophet.